Help, Stripped head of damper rod bolt taking forks apart

So I am replacing fork seals and changing out the springs on my 97 VFR, right fork comes apart no problem. Left fork however, is turning into a nightmare. I used an impact wrench with a 6mm hex head bit and managed to strip the head out and the bolt wont budge. I've read that some people need to drill the head off and when you pull the fork apart the the remainder of the bolt should just unscrew from the damper.

So those who have done this. What size drill bit? Did you use a hand drill or drill press? Should I just take it to a machine shop?

Thanks,

Gary

 

got it, had to drill until I started to see the faint like of the copper washer, then one tap on it with a center punch and the head popped off and the forks came apart. The rest if the blot unscrewed with finger pressure.

 

Yep, somewhat common. I see this from time to time, there is some techniques that I've found that help prevent this from happening in the first place but never 100%. Glad you it figured out.

 

I just went through that on both forks. Drilled into bold and used an EZout to start them turning.

 

Glad it was a happy ending, I had the same thing happen on my 91 when I was doing what you were. It helps to have a long allen head socket and to give it a couple raps with a hammer before you give it the berries with your impact gun ; )

I ended up drilling the head oot and using the slide hammer affect of the fork to wack it off. Then there was just the offending mo-fo threads left that you could use your fingers to remove. Cheers

 

Several hammer blows on that bolt as mentioned above should be a regular practice when removing.